Most people only discovered Beeple art in 2021. This was when Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” was sold at Christie’s auction. This Beeple artwork is one of the highest-selling digital art, at a fee of $69.34 million in March 2021. It is the third highest-selling art by a living artist. Many people show interest in Beeple for several reasons. A fascinating reason is that it was the first purely digital work sold by any prominent auction house. But who is Beeple?
What Is Beeple?
Beeple is an American artist and graphic designer born in 1981. His name is Michael Winkelmann, but he also goes by Mike Winkelmann. In 2003, Mike Winkelmann is a product of Purdue University, majoring in computer science. After graduating from the University, he began designing websites for corporate entities.
His first major project was in 2007, when he started making and posting digital art daily. He would post the making of the art from start to finish. His consistency with art is why the art collection, “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days.” exists.
Early Life
Mike Winkelmann was born on 20th June 1981. He lived in North Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. His mother was a worker at a senior center, while his father was an electrical engineer. Although he went on to study computer science at Purdue University, he was still a lover of art.
Art Career
“Everydays”
On 1st May 2007, Mike Winkelmann started the project “Everydays.” It involved him creating a piece of art daily. The project is now more than 5,000 days old and is still ongoing. This consecutive daily digital art project earned him $69.34 million in March 2021. He sold it as an NFT and it remains one of the most expensive artworks to date.
Winkelmann stated that Tom Judd inspired him. Tom produced a drawing daily for a year, and this inspired Winkelmann to do even better. But it has not been easy for him, as he admitted it was inconvenient on some days.
NFT Sales
Winkelmann started selling Beeple NFTs in February 2021. He sold the first and second Beeple NFTs at an auction at ETHDenver. However, his most significant break with the Beeple NFTs came with “Everydays: the First 5000 Days.” He put up this collage of artwork from the “Everydays” series for sale at Christie’s on 25th February.
“Everydays” was sold on 11th March 2021, breaking several world records. It was the first non-fungible token sold by a legacy auction house. “Everydays” was also the first artwork sale at Christie’s in Ether. That same year, he sold more Beeple NFTs on Nifty Gateway.
Beeple later went on to say that NFTs are an irrational exuberance bubble. This is because of how much people want to pay for specific NFT projects. On 9th November 2021, another Beeple’s NFT was sold at Christie’s. The project HUMAN ONE was sold for $28,958,000.
The HUMAN ONE is a 7-foot-high sculpture. Winkelmann calls it a generative work of art and a dynamically changing hybrid sculpture. He says that the HUMAN ONE is “the first portrait of a human born in the metaverse.”